Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics is the new collection of classic adventure stories by writer and editor Mike Madrid, who celebrates the plucky, exotic, and sometimes just plain odd female protagonists who populated the pages of American comics between the 1940's and 1960's. Unlike Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, these characters had their brief moment in the sun then vanished into obscurity.

Venerable underground writer Dennis Eichhorn is notorious for his outrageous true-life adventures, which since the 1970's have been collected in such comics titles as Real Stuff and such books as The Legend of Wild Man Fischer. Dennis has collaborated with dozens of comics artists over the years, including Pat Moriarity and J.R. Williams, who, along with Poochie Press' Tom Van Deusen, have been helping him launch a brand new compilation, Dennis P.

Comics journalist extraordinaire and occasional Portlander Joe Sacco returns to Words & Pictures with a project unlike any other. The Great War is a 24-foot long panorama depicting the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916. Joe regales host S.W. Conser with globe-trotting adventures behind this epic artwork, explains why this nearly century-old battle is still relevant today, and hints about the next in-depth project that he's hoping to publish.

Award-winning author Gene Luen Yang's new historical epic Boxers & Saints was a hit at the recent Wordstock literary festival. Gene's previous graphic novels, such as American Born Chinese and Prime Baby touch on the hot-button themes of culture, religion, and identity, and Boxers & Saints is no exception.

Host SW Conser welcomes guests Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler to the airwaves. The two of them have just released God Is Disappointed In You, a less-than-canonical romp through their favorite Bible stories, with words by Mark and cartoons by Shannon.

Matt Bors is a young political cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize finalist whose travels have taken him from Portland to Afghanistan and Haiti, among other places. His first book collection, Life Begins at Incorporation, has won rave reviews, and his work with the international group Cartoon Movement has helped introduce new talent to a worldwide audience.

Editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman, who spent nearly three decades at The Oregonian and was recently short-listed for the Pulitzer prize, left Portland for Sacramento at the end of 2012. While loading up the moving van, Jack made a valedictory appearance at the Oregon Historical Society to talk about art, politics, and the allure of the Pacific Northwest.

Newly elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Ted Rall has courted controversy across the globe. He's reported from war zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, stared down right-wing pundits on the Fox News Channel, and written numerous books including Revenge of the Latchkey Kids, Generalissimo El Busho, and the recent Silk Road to Ruin.

Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson is the special guest of honor at this year's Stumptown Comics Festival. Known for his staunch support of free speech and artistic autonomy, Mike has maintained his Portland roots while blazing new trails in publishing, film production, and licensing.

Jim Woodring is responsible for some of the most mind-bending art and stories in the alternative comics scene, and his new book Seeing Things collects the most recent of his iconic imagery and nightmarish narratives. Jim is joined in the studio by Bob Rini, co-founder of the Seattle cartoonist collective Friends of the Nib.

1970's Seattle is the setting for legendary Raw cartoonist CharlesBurns' epic graphic novel BlackHole that concerns the the universal and very real difficulties faced by young people trying to figure out the opposite sex and other "growing up" issues told with a backdrop of classic film noir horror and incredible detail.

Marjane Satrapi's celebrated graphic memoir Persepolis has been adapted into a major motion picture which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. S.W. Conser talks to Ms. Satrapi about animation for adult audiences, Persian art, Iranian politics, and the role of women in bringing about cultural change.

Up-and-coming Portland cartoonists Ryan Alexander Tanner (creator of the Xeric grant-winning comic Television) and Farel Dalrymple (author of the graphic novel Pop Gun War and artist for Marvel's offbeat title Omega the Unknown) share stories of building collaborative art scenes in Portland, perpetrating media hoaxes, creating comics for the Rose City Rollers, and occasionally managing to break into the big time.

Mike and Laura Allred, the award-winning team behind such offbeat comics as Madman, The Atomics, and Red Rocket 7, sit down with Words & Pictures host S.W. Conser to discuss contemporary art, dream inspiration, and film adaptations of their work. Recorded during the 2007 Stumptown Comics Festival.